Started at about 4:20am and summited via the Northeast Ridge at about 7:30am or so. Then traversed over to Conundrum. Descended via the saddle through the nasty scree - it was only really bad for a hundred feet or so - the rest was just frustrating and tedious.

Summited Castle and Conundrum via the standard route in perfect conditions. The scramble on the ridges was fun, the views were awesome. Descended through the loose scree to Montezuma Basin. These were the 5th and 6th out of 15 peaks on my 2012 CO. trip.

The rain pounded on the roof of the Jeep all night and I worried his outing would be a post cause, but an early wake up and departure from camp put our feet on this summit! With Cheryl and Jill - hell yeah, ladies!

Finally got this one taken care of! Decided to just do the quick & dirty NE ridge to git 'er done. Thanks to Eric for convincing me to get up early to do it & avoid the rains (which actually finally happened!). Left 'TH (campsite)' @ 4.51. After some interesting routefinding which slowed us down a little, finally got back on track, & on to the ridge. Summited @ 9.57. Enjoyed great views of Bells & surrounding Elk surroundings, & left summit @ 10.27. Uneventful descent put us back at the campsite (10,100') @ 13.43. Great day, & glad to be on another climb & peak again, bro.

Climbed in conjunction with Conundrum. Summited both peaks during the storm. UNGODLY cold (-8F to -13F) and windy. Sun came out just as we crested the summit of Castle. That was wicked cool! First 14ers of the winter season.

Did Castle Peak with my wife in perfect conditions (both). There still was a lot of snow. All the way from the Castle Creek parking lot to the summit. That day there was one other party skiing. We just had our boots and crampons, which was quicker in the ascent, but 10 times slower in the descent. It was my wife's first 14er/4000er and she was very happy with it.

Nice hike from the Pearl Pass junction. The summit ridge had some snow, making some of the easier moves a bit dicey...plus had some clouds moving in to make it quick, and cut out Conundrum. The summit is beautiful, and the new snow & clouds added to the mountain perspective.

I climbed Castle with my fellow CMC BMS student, Marco. This was my first time in the Elks. We camped below site 3 along the road and hiked all the way from there. We started around 4:45AM and arrived at the summit at 9:30. We had planned to do Conundrum, but the clouds were already rolling in, and the glissade back into the basin looked pretty dodgy, so we had to be content with Castle only. We we able to hitch a ride from the uppermost parking lot back to our campsite. I'll be back sometime to do Conundrum, when snow conditions are better.